A/N: This is another of those random story ideas that floated into my head from out of nowhere. I like it, though. Maybe just because it features purple Trance. XD

The Question Game

Andromeda Ascendant

Observation Deck

21:35:19

"If knowledge is power,

then the right questions

could topple an empire."

-- Barbarossa Anasazi, AFC 287

"Andromeda?" a quiet voice asked tentatively.

A hologram flickered to life on the Observation Deck of the Andromeda Ascendant. The avatar of the Commonwealth starship cocked her head slightly to one side and made eye contact with the crew member who had called for her: Trance Gemini.

"Yes?" Andromeda, better known as Rommie, asked in her usual, perfectly flat tone. "Do you require my assistance with something?"

Trance looked down and then around, curling and uncurling her tail. "I just had a question," she said sweetly, looking back toward Rommie at last.

"What is it?"

"Harper said it's okay to call you Rommie. It is okay, right?"

Rommie almost looked taken aback. She might have, if she were not the avatar of a warship. It was down in her programming to keep diplomatic detatchment -- or, as Harper would put it, "a good poker face." Rommie didn't have the faintest clue about what a poker face was, but she found it amusing colloquialism, just the same.

"Of course," she answered, almost immediately. She paused for a moment, and then asked, "Was what what you wanted to ask me?"

"Weeellll," Trance said slowly, giving Rommie an innocent little grin. "Actually, I had more than one question. Is that okay?"

"I suppose," Rommie said warily, crossing her arms. She still had her reservations about this new crew Dylan had recruited. She wasn't likely to forget the fact that they had tried to rewire her very quickly. It was like trying to brainwash an organic, only in Rommie's case, it was worse. Few organics could blow up a planet, after all.

"Okay!" Trance said brightly, hopping into the air once and grinning broadly. However, she also tripped over her own tail and fell through Rommie. This wasn't a problem for Andromeda, who just relocated her hologram; but Trance fell onto the floor, catching herself with her hands.

"Are you all right?"

Trance jumped up, brushed herself off, and grinned. "Of course I am! I've been way worse off than that before. Beka and Harper can be good at getting into jams, and I'm the one who helps get them out."

"Yes," Rommie said slowly. "I seem to recall you coming back from the dead, not that long ago."

Trance just grinned shiftily. "So, anyway, I can ask my questions, right?"

"Go ahead."

"Okay, well, my first question was kinda.. funny, I guess. Or you'll think it is, anyway."

"We'll see."

"Well, I wanted to know if I can have a cutting of a few of your plants? I really love plants, you see, and you have lots of plants that I've never even seen before!"

Rommie tried to disguise her surprise, but didn't fully succeed. "That is an unusual question."

"So will you answer it?"

There was a pause, and then: "I suppose you may, but why? Are you planning on going somewhere?"

"Oh.. no.. I just like to keep my favorite plants in the Maru. Walter and Clara and --"

"Who?"

"My plants, of course."

Rommie blinked. "You name.. your plants."

"Well, of course, silly! Don't your plants have their own names?"

"No, why would they?"

Trance looked aghast. "Why not!?"

"They are not sentient creatures, Trance."

Trance shook her purple head so vigorously that one of the clips in her platinum blond hair flew off. As if she had been expecting this to happen, Trance reached out a hand and caught it.

Rommie's right eyebrow raised. "How did you do that?" she asked, almost accusingly.

There was a look of pure innocence of Trance's purple face as she gazed back at Rommie. "I just did," she said simply, and grinned as if this were the most obvious answer in the world. Then, after a short pause, she asked, "So, what about my questions?"

"Go ahead and ask."

"Okay," Trance answered, smiling brightly again. "Well, my second question was what we're gonna do now."

"I thought Captain Hunt already explained that."

"Well, he did, but.. I mean, right now right now. Not eventually or when we can find Commonwealth people or anything."

"At the moment? I'm not sure. We have set course for a planet that once has strong Commonewalth ties."

"So, we're just gonna try to get them to join a new Commonwealth?"

"Essentially, yes."

"Oh." Trance paused, and then asked, "But what happens if they don't agree?"

"Then we will try another planet."

"So we're just going to keep going until the Commonwealth is back?"

Rommie smiled. "Something like that."

"But what if nobody wants it back?"

"I highly doubt that."

"Yes, there are really long odds, but it's always a possibility. What if we go to fifty planets and nobody wants to join?"

"We will go to the next fifty."

Trance smiled and said, "That's what I thought."

And with that, she scurried off of the Observation Deck, purple tail swishing behind her.

"Dylan?"

Dylan Hunt looked up from the flexi he was perusing to see Andromeda's avatar flicker to life in front of him. "Yes, Rommie?"

"I've just spoken with Trance Gemini."

Dylan sat up straight and looked serious now. "What is it? Does she want to back out?"

"No," Rommie said quickly. "Nothing like that."

"What is it, then?"

"She had several.. quite interesting questions for me."

"Questions?" Dylan asked, looking curious. "What kind of questions?"

"Well, first she wanted to know if she can have cuttings of some of the plants in the hydroponics bay."

Dylan looked quite confused at that. "She wanted.. plants," he repeated slowly.

"Yes. Apparently, she has quite the fascination with them."

"Well, I'll admit that it's unusual," Dylan went on, "but surely that's nothing really noteworthy, is it?"

"No, not in and of itself. However, she seemed to be building up to a particular line of questioning which rather disturbs me."

"And what was that?" Dylan asked cauriously.

"She wanted to know about our mission -- what would happen if no one wanted a re-established Commonwealth. I believe her true motive was to find out whether or not we would give up."

"Well, of course we won't."

"I know that. But, apparently, she wanted to be sure."

Dylan was silent for a moment, as if contemplating how best to react to this. "I know you have your reservations about this new crew," he said at last, "but we need them. You know that."

"Yes," Rommie admitted.

"I'm.. rather curious about Trance. I still want to know how she came back to life like that."

"Well, to be honest, it's still in question as to whether she really did. She never registered as alive by my scans in the first place."

This really surprised Dylan. "You mean, you think she's dead?"

"No. I mean, I think that she is a very different life form. A type that, as of now, I cannot detect."

Dylan was silent for a moment. "So.. you think she could be dangerous."

"Yes."

"I wouldn't worry, yet," Dylan said at last. "She is the one I worry least about, at the moment. But keep an eye on her, if you like. In the end.. only time will tell."